THE NEW STRICTLY THREAD!

[BlackPussyCat]

Here we go...

WHY do people love John?!! He is crap, this is a dancing competition and a much better dancer got voted off!! It's crazy!! It happens every year and it drives me mad!! Love Kristina though!!

Bomper, because the British Public like to root for the underdog. Because being crap but self depreciating is seen as charming. The pairing of John and Cristina is particularly clever as he is:

old, fat, rubbish, funny and smart

while she is

a blondebombshell, buxom, an amazing dancer, and seems to adore John.

watching them is entertaing because while he is clomping about looking like an arse, she is actually putting on a really fabulous performance.

AND THEN

The judges go completely overboard with their eye rolling and terribly clever metaphores and scores of 1.

If they just said "well you did a good job" and gave him a 6 they would be in the middle of the leader board and hardly anyone would come to their rescue by voting for them and they would be OUT.

The judges only have themselves to blame They need to start doing some tactical voting themselves.

Well the British Public need to catch on to themselves and realise it's not fair!! Get rid of the old git!!

He'll be voted in again next week. Mark my words. Exactly the same thing happened again last year with Kate Garraway. What it will take is for the dance off to be between two good couples, like Austin and Rachel (could so easily have happened this week), and there will be much hand wringing and bewailing AND PEOPLE WILL STOP VOTING FOR HIM.

btw my mother is just as bad. She votes for who-jimmy-whatsits from the One Show (can't even remember her name) because (direct quote)

"she is always so lovely and smiley and I love her voice"

Christine, knew I would remember

she even calls her "My Christine".

I may well have to kill my mother quite soon.

Hey hey hey - have you returned Slubbers?

Please say it's you.

Anyway, I'm still getting over the shock of Rachel being in the bottom 2.

Johns dance really didn't have any entertainment value this week.

I wish there were 2 numbers for each dancer. One to keep them in and one to boot them out. That'll make interesting viewing...

Much as Heather had improved this week, she would not have got much further, even if John had gone out.

I think seeing Rachel in the bottom two may wake people up to the fact that now it's time to get "serious".

hi Margo, yes it is I. My resolve failed. But I determined only to post in the evenings .

I reckon John would have been voted in if he had just stayed sitting on the steps talking into his pretend hand phone while Cristina cavorted and wriggled about the floor.

All I want to see now is him lift her up off the floor by one foot in the splits position (like Brian did tonight). Just that one move would almost be deserving of my precious vote.

I voted for Rachel this week as I sensed she was in danger-danger land. I have feelings in my water about these things.

Whenever John gets voted back on, the judges get terribly shirty and hop on their high horses and accuse the public of not 'undersdtanding' the competition and needing to let said judges 'educate' them about dance.

This is very entertaining.

Much more so than watching 'good' dancers strut their stuff.

This is why John stays in the show while better dancers get the boot.

And long may it continue.

I agree that, while Heather did raise her game this week, she wouldn't have lasted much longer in the comp ... so I can't get too upset about her leaving last night.

I hope that Rachel being in the bottom 2 will have two effects ...
Firstly, she will find something within herself that breaks her thru from being 'competent' to being 'excellent'.
And, secondly, the people who are voting for John will realise where their actions are heading and will stop doing it!

I like the theory about the judges over-marking John to get him mid-table but I think it's risky and questions would be asked ... tho it's true that the first week Kate Garraway was not bottom was the week she was voted out ... so you never know!

I love JS in this and would vote for him if hell froze over it is incredibly entertaining. It isnt about the dancing excellence it is about all round entertainment and John is brill at that and so enthusiastic!

I don't think the 2 things are mutually exclusive, glitterfairy.
It is a dance competition and it is entertainment ... by saying that the 'dancing excellence' is not 'all round entertainment' you are suggesting that Alesha Dixon and Matt Di Angelo were boring in last year's final ... which simply isn't true!

I felt really really sorry for Rachel. I thought her dance with Vincent was absolutely beautiful, really technically difficult, well choreographed, well done etc...I really felt for her when Arlene said that thing about her eyes not being right (?). She looked like she was going to cry. She also looked like she was going to cry when she was in the dance off. I'm not surprised. I'd be crying too if I was consistently pulling off brilliant dances and then kept on getting stupid comments like that from Arlene.

I never thought I'd be a fan of RS but I'm starting to think I might have to vote for her!

The thing is the judges have actually scored John quite high up until now (with the exception of Craig). If you look at the scores from the week before, John got 6s from Len and Bruno, and Arlene and Bruno both gave Heather and John the same score . Then Bruno had the cheek to say that Heather shouldn't have been in the bottom two even though he had scored her on a level with John and she was in the bottom two of his scores. I think that this week they decided as a group that they had been too soft on John up until now and decided to really pan him this week in an attempt to get rid of him. But I don't think it will make any difference what the judges score John, I bet he has the biggest public vote of everyone. I would love to see the actual figures.

thing is though, John is lovely and charming and I have voted for him each week except for this week when I felt it's gone on long enough - best to leave when it's still charming and not spoiling the competition,which is actually a DANCE competition,not who can be the sweetest,lovely person...

I was really hoping that this week would be John's swansong....

Saying that, I didn't enjoy the professional dancers at all, they've been on before this series haven't they? She is too muscular, very stop-start, I enjoy much more the celeb dancing!

(Don't blame I didn't vote for John!)

Oooh, how could you not enjoy the prof dancers cha cha this week mm22bys? DP and I were in awe. Thought it was so much better than the prof dancers 40s dance thing.

I agree the prof dances weren't as good as previous weeks but they have been soooooo good this year. I thought the lighting on the start of the 40s dance was clever as it looked all black and white. I didn't mind the cha cha cha but prefer to watch the proffessionals that we know and love.

Seriously - John is charming and funny - but this is a dance competition not and all round entertainment show {hmm]. Rachel really didn't deserve to be in the bottom two - and I personally watch it to see the beautiful dances - not to see John dragging that poor dancer across the floor.

Anyway - it seems like it is going to take someone really good to leave before they stop voting for him.

I love the fact that there is no clear winner this year - unlike last year. Personally I really like Lisa and Rachel - but that don't seem popular for some reason (possibly because they are attractive)

Hmmm, it's a bit lazy (and insulting!) to suggest that R & L aren't popular because they're attractive. It's because neither of them are particularly warm-to-able (not a word, I know). For example, Jodie - your bone fide international catwalk supermodel - also appears to have a lovely engaging personality which both R & L lack, as did the drop-dead gorgeous Alesha last year.

I don't mind Rachel, actually, but she is a bit insipid and I agree with Arlene that there's nothing going on behind the eyes. Lisa just irritates, I'm afraid - the gurning and faux-gratitude grate more and more each week.

I agree though, that it's great to have no clear winner yet. Austin is a shoo-in for the final, but I reckon one of the girls is going to pull it out of the hat at the last minute - so exciting!

It wasn't intended to be insulting - so sorry for that. I agree that Rachel lacks personality, but her dances are great. She doesn't seem to have much chemistry with Vincent, which I think is the issue - where as Jodie and Ian and Lisa and Brendan both seem to get on great.

I think Austin will be in the final, as will Lisa probably, and maybe Tom for the final three. Difficult to tell at the moment as Saturday proved, anything can happen.

Oh, don't worry - 'insulting' was probably a bit OTT anyway But it's a common complaint that good-looking female contestants don't get votes from women because they're 'too attractive' and I just don't think that's true at all.

I would hope it wouldn't be true, but I suspect that sometimes it is. I would love to see Jodie improve enough to get to the final and win - she seems a lovely girl.

What's all this 'nothing behind the eyes' thing with Rachel?! Arlene said it. Lots of people on here have said it. What does it actually mean? I could see tears welling up in her eyes when Arlene said that to her...didn't look like there was nothing going on to me!

Never thought I'd be flying the flag for Rachel Stevens! Not a fan of hers at all in general but I think she's turned out a few lovely dances and I think she's come in for a lot of really quite snide criticism.
Go Rachel!!

Re attractiveness of female contestants - Alesha won last year and she's gorgeous